Captain Janeway
From LoveToKnow Sci-Fi
The Toughest Job In Starfleet
The first thing that's always mentioned about Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is that she is the first female Star Trek captain. Not, of course, the first female Starfleet captain, but the first female to helm a Star Trek show. This was more noteworthy in the 20th century in which the show was created and aired than in the 24th century in which the show takes place.
Less often mentioned is that Janeway had the toughest job of any Starfleet or Star Trek captain. Stranded on the far side of the galaxy and seventy years' travel from home, there was no Starfleet to watch her back or come to the rescue in the nick of time. Janeway's Voyager was on its own. Add to that the fact that a third of her crew were the very Maquis rebels she'd set out to arrest, and the challenges she faces are immense.
Kathryn Janeway, background
A native of Indiana, Captain Janeway came up through the Starfleet ranks on the science track rather than the command track. Her mentor was Admiral Paris, the father of Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), the convict who becomes her pilot on Voyager.
Her best friend is Tuvok (Tim Russ), her Vulcan Security Officer, and she has a boyfriend back home, Mark, in whose care she left her pregnant dog. An avid tennis player in her youth, she takes up the sport again on Voyager's holodecks, and shows her science bent by relaxing in a holographic representation of Leonardo Da Vinci's studio.
Often Unorthodox
Janeway often finds unorthodox solutions to problems; this is no Starfleet martinet. She always prefers to negotiate when she can and fight when she must.
The addition of the rebels to her crew is a demonstration of her flexibility. She even makes the rebel captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) her second in command, gives the convict Tom Paris a temporary Starfleet commission, and adds two Delta Quadrant natives to her crew as native guides. Later in the series, it is no surprise when she finds a place in the crew for the former Borg Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).
Janeway had a number of encounters with Q (John DeLancie), the powerful and capricious alien familiar to fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation. At one time he was determined to have a child with her, believing that a Q-human hybrid would solve the problems of the Q Continuum. (For all the problems Captain Picard had with Q, that's one he never had to worry about!)
No Time For Romance
Of all the Star Trek Captains, Janeway probably had the fewest romantic encounters. Some of that lack was surely caused by the ship's situation; stranded decades from home, there was no chance for old friends and lovers to drop by for a visit, and everyone she knew worked for her, leaving the only romantic possibility the chance-met alien. But considering the amount of inroads Captain Kirk used to make in those chance-met aliens, some of the issue was surely also the 20th Century double-standard. If Janeway so much as took a walk with a likely alien, many male fans started called her cheap.
Many female fans never lost the hope that Janeway and Chakotay would make a match of it, but the romance never materialized. At one point, Janeway and Chakotay were even stranded together on a planet for what they believed to be for life, but returned to their semi-formal relationship once they were rescued.
Success At Last
Captain Janeway came in for her share of criticism for various decisions she made during Voyager's sojourn in the Delta Quadrant; if you want to start a heated argument at a Star Trek convention, just say the work "Tuvix". (On second thought, don't. Really.) But one thing that will always be said about her, that would indeed serve as a worthy epitath: She brought her ship home.
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